Connecting at the NRA Show

There’s nothing quite like the National Restaurant Association Show, and this year’s NRA – the association’s 100th – was especially momentous. Our pilgrimage to the Windy City came amid shifting tides. As Chicago inaugurated Mayor Lightfoot, heralding a new period of change and growth for the city, we – as an industry and a community – were able to unite and reunite. Of course, we saw some of the newest product introductions from across the industry, but our prime opportunities at the show came from each other.

 New products don’t stay new for long, but our professional relationships can always be rejuvenated and strengthened. We’re more connected than ever before, but neither email nor telephone can replace the face-to-face. The NRA Show, then, reminds us that we’re in the business of dealing with people, not profiles. As the industry continues to grow, we’re committed to preserving the personal touch that the best of our industry has always been known for. Facing the future, these bonds allow us to reach around the globe in our pursuit of inspiration, product, and opportunity.

 What does this mean taken out of the ether and into the tangible? Let’s look at flatware. A year (to the day) after our introduction, we caught up with our peers at Studio William, just in time to unveil two of their collections on LMTprovisions.com. Mulberry, an award-winning modern classic, and Fiddle Vintage, a contemporary take on a historic pattern, are just two of our favorites from this UK manufacturer. Mulberry is one of the broadest offerings in our portfolio, with close to 50 SKU’s in the collection. (There are twenty-five different spoons in this pattern!) The darling of Studio William’s 18/0 sister brand, Charingworth, Fiddle Vintage first made its debut in France in the 1760’s and is now primed to herald a new era in the States.

 Across the show, we were thrilled to see Amefa featuring our PVD flatware patterns front and center – a literal display of how our partnership has grown over the past year. If you’re still teetering on the transition from silver to black, gold, champagne or copper cutlery, we invite you to visit Wayan on the Lower East Side. Our black Matteware flatware anchors Indonesian cuisine with French flair, presented on modern, irregular ceramics from Haand Hospitality.

We were pleased to learn that Cardinal will continue distributing Sola flatware after Dudson’s unfortunate closure. Of course, it’s exactly what we would expect from one of our largest and longest standing factory partners. Their flatware portfolio is already impressive, but they’ve added a new dimension with Sola Switzerland.

 Whether decades old or brand new, whether between manufacturer and distributor or distributor and end user, our business relationships flourish with human contact. Noting that we had a lot of it at the NRA show would be simply an understatement.

Written by Andrew Geoffrey Beres and Morgan Tucker

Originally published in Total Food Service Magazine, June 2019, Vol. 29, No. 2.